Hyderabad: The Congress has alleged that the state was in deep agriculture crisis and accused Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao of using tactics like the Rythu Bandhu Scheme to divert people's attention from failure.
TPCC chief spokesperson Dr Sravan Dasoju gave a PowerPoint presentation at Gandhi Bhavan on Sunday, which was attended by TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, senior leaders Shabbir Ali, Geetha Reddy, Jaipal Reddy, K.R. Suresh Reddy, Kodanda Reddy and Sridhar Babu.
Elaborating on the flaws of the Rythu Bandhu Scheme, Dr Dasoju said as against the 1.01 crore acres of cultivable land, the government was distributing cheques for 1.42 crore acres. He sought to know the details of beneficiaries of additional 40 lakh acres. He said the government was giving the number of farmers as 45 lakh in some places and 58 lakh in others.
He said that the scheme might benefit only the rich and big farmers. The government gave Rs 415.15 crore to 17,98,068 farmers having one acre of land. Another Rs 877.55 crore was given to 14,34,187 farmers having less than one acre of land.
Nearly 56 per cent (32,32,355) were other farmers who got Rs 1,292.70 crore or 23 per cent of total amount. “Nearly 15 per cent of farmers got 85 per cent of Rythu Bandhu funds and about 1.5 lakh farmers got only Rs 100 cheques,” he said, adding: “KCR is giving an ointment for a patient who needs to undergo surgery.”
Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy slammed TRS government for pushing the farm sector into crisis. Due to wrong policies of TRS Government, Telangana has turned from a revenue surplus state to a debt-ridden state where farmers are the worst hit, he said.
